Defeating the enemies of freedom

Analysing the gravest threats facing humanity, the British novelist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) recommended that a world Bill of Rights should include efforts to increase available resources to meet the needs of the world's population; limiting the power of those who, through their wealth or hierarchical position, effectively dominated the masses of ordinary, unprivileged men and women who constituted the majority. He elaborated on these suggestions in his article, originally titled “The Rights of Man and the Facts of the Human Situation”, which he sent to UNESCO in June 1947. Excerpts follow.